First-time Dis cruisers 1/31/09 Eastern w/phots, navs, menus-FINAL THOUGHTS 3/21

[1stdisneycruise]

Originally Posted by jezebella

Canteloupe, Honeydew, Pineapple, and Watermelon.

Oh, thank you for letting us know. I hate to waste. But I love pineapple, grapes and a big bery fan but I do not like melons so the kids will love but I will skip

[1stdisneycruise]

Originally Posted by OurOhana

Hi there. Sorry for the delayed response. It was a crazy end to the week. Jezebella was right about what was in the fruit bowl. Now I will say I didn't enjoy the room service fruit bowl all that much. But the one great thing is that Disney always had fresh fruit around. Goofy's Galley had fresh fruit cut up, which was really good. They also had tons on the buffets, also very fresh. And if you miss all of that, they were good about keeping bananas, apples and oranges out at Goofy's Galley, even when it was closed. We'd pick up some fruit at the end of the night, so we could have it in the morning before we left the room.

The croissants I got (and that they list) were plain - but good. But they had chocolate croissants at the Palo brunch, and I also think on some of the breakfast buffets (if I remember correctly.) I've also since read on the boards that people request the chocolate ones in room service, and have received them. So I'd give that I try for sure. The cholate croissant I had at Palo's was really good.


I hope that helps.

Thank you for writing me back. I hope your week is slowing down now.

I will do that with the fruit. The fruit you took back to your room is the fruit I like. Thank you for that tip.

i will for sure try to get the cholate croissants oh my mouth is watering

Thank you again

[Opie100]

Please continue this trip report ASAP - including the Navigators. Thx!

[disneychic]

Great TR!

[PaigerPoo]

MORE! MORE! MORE! This is GREAT STUFF!
How often do they change the menus and Navigators anyway? We leave for our 7 day Eastern in Oct.

[OurOhana]

Originally Posted by PaigerPoo

MORE! MORE! MORE! This is GREAT STUFF!
How often do they change the menus and Navigators anyway? We leave for our 7 day Eastern in Oct.

Sorry for the delay in the updates this week. It's been a long week, but fortunately the weekend is almost here. I'll update more this weekend.

The menus seemed to change some from what I read on other postings, but they were mostly the same. Others who've gone on more cruises could give you a better feel. But a lot of what people talked about eating on their trip reports were items I found on the menus. As for the navigators, I think they all change a little depending on the trip. For instance, our formal night was a little different than normal, because of the Super Bowl. But the events (such as those for the children) all seem to make an appearance, maybe just in a little different order.

[Opie100]

Thanks OurOhana. I'm particularly interested in finding out what time the kids club opened on port days, as that will influence my excursion decisions.

[ejkjmom]

Originally Posted by OurOhana

Sorry for the delay in the updates this week. It's been a long week, but fortunately the weekend is almost here. I'll update more this weekend.

Enjoying you TR, we are leaving for St Croix next Sat the 27th, I read where you said it was one of your favorite days, so I was just curious if you had any advice for us as to what to do or see??
Was looking into Carombola Beach Break but it seem so costly to do it thru Disney????
Did you talk to anyone who did this excursion, or any other Disney excursion for that matter in St Croix???

Any suggestions/advice you have would be greatly appreciated

Glad you had a wonderful trip, your Little Girl is Beautiful!!!!!

[SCDizneyDawn]

Thank you for your great review! Eagerly awaiting more

[OurOhana]

Thank Goodness it's the weekend. My main goal, after doing laundry and spending quality time with my cute daughter, is to update this report. It's just been hard to do during the week. Enough about that, it's time to celebrate lazy Saturdays!

Originally Posted by Opie100

Thanks OurOhana. I'm particularly interested in finding out what time the kids club opened on port days, as that will influence my excursion decisions.

I was worried about that too, but no fears. Disney wants you to do their excursions. So they open the clubs early. On this day, we dropped out daughter off at the lab (the area for kids 5-7, I think) at about 8 a.m. It was open at 7:30, which I think was the earliest people could meet for their excursions anyway. And as usual, it was open all day. They switched back to the club just a short time later. My daughter had a blast, and didn't even seem to realize we had gone for a few hours. Later in the day, we took her off the ship to do pictures. You'll see those pics this week. They were some of our favorites.

Originally Posted by ejkjmom

Enjoying you TR, we are leaving for St Croix next Sat the 27th, I read where you said it was one of your favorite days, so I was just curious if you had any advice for us as to what to do or see??
Was looking into Carombola Beach Break but it seem so costly to do it thru Disney????
Did you talk to anyone who did this excursion, or any other Disney excursion for that matter in St Croix???

Any suggestions/advice you have would be greatly appreciated

Glad you had a wonderful trip, your Little Girl is Beautiful!!!!!

It was our favorite day, completely because of our excursion. We did the miniboat excursion. I'll post more on the St. Croix day with pics this weekend. It was $79 a person and we were in the water a lot. We also heard of people just going to the beach within walking distance (bring water shoes with you though if you do this, because it was really rocky) Or you could just catch a cab. The people of St. Croix were really accomodating. More on that to come.

Originally Posted by SCDizneyDawn

Thank you for your great review! Eagerly awaiting more

Thank you for reading - More to come shortly.

[OurOhana]

After catching our breath from our daughter with the big mouth, we got back to our room to get ready for formal night.

We hoped to get some cute pictures this night and headed out to do so before dinner They have the characters and photo ops available starting around 5 p.m. and usually the same group of characters starting around 7:30 so early and late diners can take advantage. We tried to get our pics before we ate, in case of spills (And I’m talking about the hubby this time, more than the daughter – He’ll be less amused with that comment than me, but it’s true!) But no great pics this night - it was like a day before we realized the code to getting our little to smile for real – and not her cheesy smile.

Dinner this night was the Golden Mickey’s menu. We had it in Parrot Cay. I’ve heard others say they didn’t enjoy formal night as much here because it was a less formal atmosphere. And while it was true that it is a less formal room, it was fine with us.





The hubby is away at the moment, so I’ll try to remember what he ate, but I may be a little off.

I had the cheese soufflé. It was just OK. I then had the blue cheese soup. I thought it was pretty good. I don’t remember if he had an appetizer or salad, but we both had the lamb for the entrée. It was really good. And it’s about the time we realized that as crazy as it sounds, it was the meat we thought Disney prepared best. I would think that’s tough to cook in large quantities without over cooking it, but they were pretty on target. The only problem for us was the lamb was pretty small. And well, let’s be honest, we’re big eaters. And so we learned a new trick this night to make this Disney cruise more magical for us big eaters.

After we took our daughter to the club for a short time, (She wanted to go more and more – especially after sitting at long dinners.) I looked at my hubby and asked if he was still hungry. We skipped dessert at dinner, because DD wanted to go to the club, but I knew DH would want to go to plutos for a hotdog. Instead, I suggested we run by Topsiders. I had heard they served a steak every night, and after tasting the lamb, I wanted more meat. (I should have ordered two at dinner, but I caught on to that idea later)

So we ran to Topsiders. Just as everyone has said on the boards, it’s a sit down table service meal, but you can see the entrees on display when you walk in. They had the lamb, plus they had several other things off the Golden Mickey’s menu. In fact, we could have skipped the main meal, and still been able to try most of what we had that night. But I didn’t want the same. I heard they had a porterhouse steak, and I wanted it. My DH followed my lead, but by this point he decided he was just starving (cue the dramatic music here) and asked for two steaks on the same plate. He later said he would have been just fine with one, and I don’t think he finished the second one.

Anyway, the steaks were great. Well, DH said it was OK, not his favorite cut. But I thought it was very flavorful (And I like a Ribeye as a first choice for steaks) and not over cooked. I asked for everything medium rare. It was more like medium, but I was just fine with that. I suppose if you want it more rare, you should ask for rare, and expect medium rare. We just got the entrees, but others by us got the full four courses.

We were in a hurry. We hadn’t seen the first night’s show. We were all just so tired. But I had heard good things about the shows, so I was determined to go.

We went to grab DD from the club, since we thought she would enjoy the show too. And we were right. Disney puts on fabulous shows. And many of our favorite characters made an appearance. Our DD does pretty well in movies, and she loved this. She did talk a ton, but just asking a lot of questions about the characters. I will say the place was packed, and we had to sit quite a ways back. But we still had a great view, no problems there.

After the show, we were ready for bed. It was a really nice night. But we wanted to get our rest, because we had to get up a little earlier than normal for our excursion the next day on St. Croix.

[poohj80]

Thanks for continuing to post!

One question - I haven't seen any lids items on the menus you have posted. are the separate or do we just ask what's available?

[Opie100]

Originally Posted by OurOhana

I was worried about that too, but no fears. Disney wants you to do their excursions. So they open the clubs early. On this day, we dropped out daughter off at the lab (the area for kids 5-7, I think) at about 8 a.m. It was open at 7:30, which I think was the earliest people could meet for their excursions anyway. And as usual, it was open all day. They switched back to the club just a short time later. My daughter had a blast, and didn't even seem to realize we had gone for a few hours. Later in the day, we took her off the ship to do pictures. You'll see those pics this week. They were some of our favorites.

So basically kids that would usually be in the "Club" go to the "Lab" during the mornings until the "Club" opens when there is an early excursion, right? That is great info. Looking forward to the rest of the Navigators as well.

Question about the mini-boat excursion - do people get their own boat or do they share two-to-a-boat?

[OurOhana]

Originally Posted by poohj80

Thanks for continuing to post!

One question - I haven't seen any lids items on the menus you have posted. are the separate or do we just ask what's available?

So here's the amusing thing. I went out of my way to get copies of the main menus, but I forgot to just pick up a kids menu. Go figure. My husband even asked after we left, but I hadn't even thought of it. Anyway, they get a menu every night, already sitting at their seat. It's mostly for coloring, but the menu is on one page. In general, they had chicken fingers, pizza, mickey-shaped pasta, hamburgers, fruit plates or soup for appetizers and a smoothie of the day. My DD did get a burger, but never ate it. She liked the pizza. And then we asked for hotdogs, which wasn't on the menu that night, but they got it from room service. So even if it's not listed on the menu, you might ask if you can get it. Also, the fruit plates were decorated cute for the kids. We never did a smoothie. My daughter isn't much into them. They do cost, but I don't remember how much. I don't recall thinking it was too much. They offer sodas, apple juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, milk and chocolate milk (probably other stuff, but I don't remember what.) You can also order a "shirley temple" or a smiliar non-alcoholic drink, which they'll get from the bar. They cost something, but we never got one, so I'm not sure how much. My DD was addicted to the chocolate milk, so she lived off of that most week.

Originally Posted by Opie100

So basically kids that would usually be in the "Club" go to the "Lab" during the mornings until the "Club" opens when there is an early excursion, right? That is great info. Looking forward to the rest of the Navigators as well.

Question about the mini-boat excursion - do people get their own boat or do they share two-to-a-boat?

Yes, you're right about the club on excursion mornings. I want to say they stayed in the lab for an hour or so. Just make sure to get your little ones something to eat ahead of time. They don't serve food in the club except for lunch and then they go to topsiders for dinner (I'll tell you about that in the next posting) But I never noticed any sort of snacks or drinks (there is a water fountain in there. My daughter never said she was hungry, but I thought I'd just point that out for parents used to child care centers where they're constantly giving snacks. It's possible they gave them out and I didn't know about it, but not that I know.

Yes, for the miniboat excursion, you get your own boat or you can sit with someone else. I only saw one or two people in each, but I suppose they could seat three. I'm not sure if you have to pay to sit in your own, but they had it planned for us to be together. I'll post pictures of the boats with my next report, which I'm in the process of writing now. I'll tell you more details about the excursion in that report.

[TotallyAngelic]

I am really enjoying your report - it's great to see all the menus as it's reminding me of all the delicious food I ordered and as I had forgotten a lot of it and it will help me a great deal when I write my cruise trip report.

Your DD is so cute - thats a really funny story about the elevator encounter with the piglet lady! Children are so cute when they just say what comes into their head (and when they are someone elses!)